Don't Fear The Reaper
by Idream3223
Summary: Post DEA, Part 3 of Trilogy: Summertime Sadness, The Scientist. Freyda's comeuppance for her part in Eric's slavery. *One Shot*


_A/N - This is the final piece of what started as a one shot with Summertime Sadness and became a trilogy when I added The Scientist. Most of you wanted to see Freyda pay, and CH as well. If there is one thing I have learned…well, I think the AP covers it well below._

_Love to you all, my readers. Thank you for your time to visit me here. I love writing for you all_.

**Don't Fear the Reaper**

Their night went on unending and they traveled each other like explorers of old, map in hand, tracing the paths and rivers on the dark continents of each other's souls. The only marking of time was kept in kisses, in pleasure and in healing. They unearthed the essence of who each of them was, things never said or shown to another being, because somehow they had been waiting for each other. Sometimes they could easily imagine native drums in the jungles of their souls as they shared something particularly dark or traumatic that had happened on their path to each other, but there was never fear. When the drums got loud they held each other tighter and made their vows, each other first, always, nothing else mattered, and in time the drums would cease and the journey would continue. There was so much to see, to know, to feel. It was the journey that we all secretly keep a bag packed for, but most of us fear too much to ever buy the ticket.

One his favorite things to do still, was watch her dance. Her movements soothed the beast inside him. The way that she embraced him mind, body and soul was too perfect for words. Because of her he now believed he had a soul. Oh, it wasn't in his possession but he knew it was safe tucked away in the lethal fairy that danced before him. Seeing her he wanted her now, ached for her, but this was nothing new. Every time he saw her dance, saw her glow with power and rise up to dance it the sky itself he was taken by the need to possess her again, to prove to himself that this was not a dream, not a delusion brought on by being forced into a life of slavery to the Queen of Oklahoma. Sometimes he was sure this paradise, this life where he could take his wife in his arms whenever he wanted and make love to her had to be a dream. He had done too many horrible things in his life to ever be rewarded in such a way.

He didn't push too hard to look for the illusion though. He needed it too much. Real or not his sanity was hinged on it. Should he awake and find himself still in the Queen's court he would meet the sun and an army would not be able to stop him. Here in this strange new world he found Valhalla, Heaven, and Nirvana. Nothing less would ever hold him to this existence again. It was nothing, nothing without her.

Once, he had asked her why this song, this version and not the original. She had laughed and called him silly, swatting him on the ass none to gently, which had only made him harder. "Because, husband."

"Because, why, wife?" he pressed her verbally as he pressed deeply between her thighs, sliding in… and in… and in still more, as she took all of his aching flesh into her welcoming body. His words ground out between locked jaws as he focused on keeping the pleasure going as long as possible for them. The sound she made when he sank all way into her, made his hair stand on end and his balls go tight in need of release. It was somewhere between a growl and a plea and it was all pleasure, pleasure she took from him being there with her like this. Her sounds, reverberated through the night sky, in time with the beat of the music, somehow. On Sookie's World, all things were possible, he thought and then he thought no more as he pushed himself and her to the edge of pleasure, their bodies together seeking to unite into one mass of quivering satisfied flesh.

It was after she had painted the walls of the beach house bedroom with his name at the peak of ecstasy that she had finally answered his question. She was laying on his chest, her legs on either side of his body her arms holding him, her face buried in his neck from where she had just taken him into her for the third time completing their re-bonding.

"It's this song, this version because this is what was playing the first time I ever saw you, husband. You were on your throne at Fangtasia-"

"And you were in the red and white dress," he finished for her, remembering that night well himself.

"Yes." She chuckled softly. "This song was the first time I saw you, and it will be last time that she does." He had held her closer then as she drifted to sleep, feeling her bloodlust to kill Freyda wash through has she surrendered to rest. Her possessiveness of him causing his fangs to snap down in response.

Fuck, she was amazing.

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We say that we love with reckless abandon. We love lattes, friends, fads and fashions. We love everything so passionately and so exuberantly that the word itself has become meaningless , like any word repeated to the point that it sounds like nonsense to your ears.

A well understood but rarely discussed truth is that most of us have never known love. At least not as it was intended to be; a selfless act free of expectation and demand.

_I'll love you if…_  
_If you love me you will…_  
_If he loved me he would have…_  
_She wouldn't have done this if she loved me…_

There is a hole inside us that we try and fill with drink, food, sex, leading to or allowing our own self-abuse to win the love of another. Attaining that others love being the most important goal, but what of love of the self? How can you offer the best you have to someone when you can only count the ways you suck and attempt the self-destruct each day? Somewhere inside we know though that if our partners can't love themselves, they will never love us. It keeps us forever together and forever apart, and love becomes a twisted empty image of itself reflecting nothing.

We become twisted empty images that reflect nothing, absorbing all like a proverbial black hole.

Freyda was a black hole.

She had actually convinced herself that in time Eric would see that being her consort was what was best for him, an honor and would come to love her. She had convinced herself that she loved him, not realizing that the main attraction was due to his resistance. He was something that she couldn't have, therefore she wanted him more.

She believed that forcing him to drink her blood so she could track him and sense his emotions was an act of love.  
She believed that forcing him to pleasure her body was an act of love.  
She believed that holding him prisoner was an act of love.

Freyda wouldn't know love if it sank its fangs into her.

Her rage and anger at his disappearance were rooted in the shame of her failure to protect what was hers and in fear of looking weak to her peers and enemies. Her thoughts were all about herself, and not once did she wonder what fate had befallen her Viking. She had felt the tie go dead, and immediately began to wonder who could replace him and offer the same protection for her Queendom that a thousand year old Viking brought with him like a toothbrush.

Before long her eyes turned to the King of Louisiana, William Compton. Emissaries were dispatched, allegiance proposed and a wedding was held. Compton was no Northman, everyone knew that, but he did have considerable resources at his disposal and a joining of their respective domains would increase their safety from would be usurpers. It was a nice neat little arrangement, and she noticed that Compton took a perverse amount of pleasure in trying to make sure that he outshined the Viking in the sack.

Again, there was no comparison, but his need to get out of the Viking's shadow made him try so hard to please her. It made him an excellent lap dog, which was what Freyda had really wanted all along.

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Freyda was holding court again when the speaker system turned itself on and Heaven 17 flooded the room.

_All our times have come_  
_Here but now they're gone_  
_Caesars don't fear the reaper_  
_Nor do the wind and the sun and the rain_  
_We can be like they are_  
_Come on baby_  
_Don't fear the reaper_  
_Baby take my hand_  
_Don't fear the reaper_  
_We'll be able to fly_  
_Don't fear the reaper_  
_Baby I'm your man_

It was then she saw them, felt him again in the blood tie. They walked out the crowd and stood before her, smiling. THEY WERE SMILING! "GUARDS! TAKE THEM! WRAP HIM IN SILVER! BRING HER TO ME! SHE IS MINE!" Freyda had stood as she roared her commands and had taken a step toward Eric and Sookie when the guards voice rang out.

"Who, my Queen?" He looked around in askance, not sure who in the court of spectators she was referring to.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN WHO? They are standing right there!" She pointed to the lovers and watched her guard look right through them.

"My Queen, there is no on there!" Freyda reached out again and confirmed that she could feel her consort in the tie, he was right there and he was feeling amused. HOW DARE THAT BASTARD LAUGH AT HER! She moved from the throne at vamp speed and passed through Sookie and Eric as though they were but shades from the underworld. WHAT. THE. FUCK? She turned back and reached out again, watching her hand pass through them. They looked real, he felt real in the tie, but she was not able to touch them. "My Queen," her lieutenant approached her and in her rage she threw him at the wall, taking down several of court attendees in the process.

Sookie looked at her and winked. She moved closer to Eric and pulled his head down to hers for a passionate kiss. She could feel him respond in the tie, and it felt exactly how it had felt when he had made love to her. All this time he had been thinking of that fucking human? "ARRGH!" she screamed and ran at them again to tear them apart, to tear her apart once and for all but again she passed through the apparition before her. "THE VIKING IS MINE!" she screamed at the air. The vampires in court tittered at their Queen apparently unhinged from the loss of her consort. Sookie laughed.

"Never," was all she said and kissed him again. The volume of the music increased and for the first time Freyda heard the words.

_Love of two is one_  
_Here but now they're gone_  
_Came the last night of sadness_  
_And it was clear she couldn't go on_  
_Then the door was open and the wind appeared_  
_The candles blew then disappeared_  
_The curtains flew then he appeared... saying don't be afraid_  
_Come on baby... and she had no fear_  
_And she ran to him... then they started to fly_  
_They looked backward and said goodbye... she had become like they are_  
_She had taken his hand... she had become like they are_  
_Come on baby... don't fear the reaper_

"La-la-la-la-la" Sookie sang as she danced around the Viking, smiling madly at Freyda.

"TURN THAT GODDAMNED MUSIC OFF!" she screamed. Sookie laughed and she and the Viking disappeared.

It was an hour later before they were able to disconnect the sound system. Don't Fear the Reaper played on an endless loop the whole time. Freyda was actually scared by the time silence reigned in her court again.

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Eric and Sookie flew west in this world, running from the sun, reveling in what they had just done. "Torturing Freyda is a thing to be savored," Sookie had told him before they had left their world. He had regarded her silently wondering when she had become such a connoisseur of misery. Then he realized, she wanted to give as good as she had gotten.

"And do I not deserve your fury as well, my Sookie?" his voice was quiet as he considered all the ways he had failed her. Car accidents, staking's, attackers that broke her bones and spirit, that sliced her flesh and her soul, that took him from her despite his best efforts to forever stay. His failings were beyond measure, and he believed he too deserved punishment for the nights he had been forced to lay between Freyda's thighs, servicing her no matter where his heart was, his body had been forced to sin because he failed to be smart enough, fast enough, strong enough to defeat Appius' last betrayal.

He brought them to ground in a field where moonlight glistened in the dewdrops.

"Why do you think you should be punished, Eric? Did you mean to leave me? Did you mean to push me away?"

"No!" he rushed to reassure her.

"Then if there is punishment for mistakes, and lack of experience in relationships and love, I deserve a share as well." She had hugged him then kissing his cheek softly, standing on her tippy toes. "You have shared your pain with me, Beloved," she whispered to his chest. "I have felt your pain as well as my own and I will see to it that she has repaid in kind for taking and for touching what was mine." He shivered then, her words somehow loving and chilling at the same time, he marveled that she could be so diametrically opposed to herself in the same sentence and realized she had gotten that from him. "You are so strong, Eric, stronger than I could ever be!" she whispered fiercely into his chest, her face buried there. He smiled and kissed the top of her head, holding her close.

"You are stronger than you realize, lover." She leaned back looking up at him. "You stood beside me when I showed you what had been done to me, and you never flinched. You greeted that darkness with light and love. You greeted my darkness with light and love." He kissed her lips softly, reverently then and asked what he had wondered for a long time now.

"When I told you those things, I saw your tears, Sookie, but they never fell. Why didn't you cry?"

"Did you?" he looked at her, shocked knowing that she knew the answer already. "Then how could I dishonor you with weakness?" He was moved by her words, and felt his heart swell. There seemed to be so much more room in him now.

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When Freyda rose for the night she found Sookie sitting on her bed, stake in hand. Immediately, Freyda moved to grab her, but again her hands passed through as though she were a ghost. Sookie laughed tauntingly, never moving as she toyed with the stake in her hand.

"You're not real!" Freyda whispered, fear rolling off her in waves.

"I said the same thing about you for months when I found out what you had planned for my husband," Sookie said, the smile draining from her eyes, as they turned cold and angry.

"He was never your husband, you pathetic bitch!" Freyda lashed out again, again catching only air.

"If you had believed that you would not have felt the need to ban me from your state, to make him divorce me. If I were not a threat to your plans you would have perhaps been more generous and left him alone entirely."

"HE WAS MINE!" Sookie flew at Freyda so fast that she might have been a vampire herself. While Freyda could not actually touch Sookie she could feel the stake pressing into her flesh above her heart. She whimpered.

"NEVER!" Deeper the stake pressed, and Freyda was sure that was to meet her end there in that moment.

"Please," she whispered, looking into the ghost's angry eyes. Sookie laughed.

"Begging will not save you. Nothing will save you from my wrath. Remember when you came to my house?" Freyda nodded, she had regretted not killing her that night before her invitation had been rescinded.

"Now, I have come to yours, to tell you that I am going to take away all the things that you hold most dear." Sookie paused, licking her lips to savor what she was about to say next. "You will have nothing when I am done, and you will beg me for death before I take your life, slowly in the most painful way you can imagine."

"Because I took your precious Viking?" she sneered at Sookie now, sensing that she had nothing to lose either way.

"No, because you are unworthy of him, because you abused him, because…you dared to touch him at all!"

"My King will stop you!" Freyda blurted looking for something that might distract Sookie and give her the upper hand again.

"Your King?"

"Yes," she sneered, victory shining in her eyes now. "William Compton is my King!" Victory faded slowly from her gaze as Sookie sat back and belly laughed in her face.

"You really are dumb bitch aren't you? You think Bill could stop me?" She laughed again. "He's always been in love with me, too, Freyda. Can't you find a man of your own?" She continued laughing now. "But, even if he weren't sworn to me, yes that's right SWORN to me, he couldn't stop me from killing you. Maybe he just wanted to be the King of Oklahoma all along." Still laughing Sookie disappeared from Freyda's resting chamber as if she had never been there.

Freyda didn't bother to call the guards this time. She knew they wouldn't see anything and she could afford to lose no more face on this matter. Her mind was racing.

Sworn to the human?  
King of Oklahoma?

She refused to leave her chamber that night, and for the next several. Her lieutenant called King Compton to come see the Queen. When he arrived she greeted him with a wooden stake and tried to kill him, screaming that he had betrayed her with a human.

He had her locked up in the dungeon and silvered. She was raving like a mad woman about Sookie Stackhouse, accusing him of betraying her with Sookie.

He hadn't seen Sookie in years, she had disappeared from Bon Temps, and while he suspected foul play, he had never been able to prove anything or find a trace of her.

He approached Freyda to ask if she had information about Sookie, and was run out of the cell when she descended into screams of madness. He contacted The Council and reported her assassination attempt and just like that he was the solo monarch of two states.

Freyda's screams echoed up from the dungeon during his coronation, and he thought once he heard laughter, but he had other things to focus on and let it go. I_t couldn't be her anyway, he thought, she is gone. She has been for a long time._

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Freyda faced The Council with a crazy smile on her face and a song on her lips.

"_The curtains flew then he appeared... saying don't be afraid_  
_Come on baby... and she had no fear_  
_And she ran to him... then they started to fly_  
_They looked backward and said goodbye... she had become like they are_  
_She had taken his hand... she had become like they are_  
_Come on baby... don't fear the reaper_

_La-la-la-la-la"_

The Ancient Pythoness watched her with blind eyes as she sang. Freyda turned away to wave at Sookie and Eric who were standing in the corner of the chamber as she faced The Council. The AP followed her gaze, raising an eyebrow and readied herself to speak.

"She did you know? She ran to him and he flew her away." Freyda spoke in a quiet tone, followed by another chorus of "La-la-la-la-la" that left everyone present speechless. "She's like us now, she continued her eyes rolling crazily in the sockets, seeing ghosts in the room all around her.

"She who?" the AP's voice echoed through the room.

"Oh, you know!" Freyda said, waving her hand dismissively at the ancient vampire who held her fate in her hands. "The human, the one from Rhodes, the almighty perfect SOOKIE FUCKING STACKHOUSE!" She jumped up now and screamed her name, calling for her. Singing off key, "Don't fear the reaper, come on baby…" her voice trailed off and she sat down again, still giggling madly.

The AP sat there and stared a long moment before turning to her co-council and stating what was on everyone's minds.

"She is completely mad. She should be put to death. Objections?" No one on The Council spoke. Sookie however, spoke from Eric's arms.

"They won't kill you before I do, it's almost over now Freyda." Freyda's response was to cackle and hum a few bars of the song she couldn't get out of her head. "Just a little longer and we will finally be even, I can't tell you how excited I am to think of ending you!" Sookie looked up to see the AP looking directly at her, and she felt Eric pull her closer. Silence reigned for a few moments and then the AP spoke again.

"Being immortal, we often lose sight of the impact our actions can have on others. Things can lose shape and form when they are stretched across the face of forever." She paused here, and seemed to gather her thoughts before going on. "I would caution those present today to remember that they have a responsibility to themselves and those they care for to never lose sight of how our actions can change the lives of others. Sometimes, we have to let go of a thing before it takes us down with it." Everyone on the room thought her words were about Freyda's impending demise for the greater vampire good. No one could afford to have an insane vampire on the loose and it seemed the greater mercy to put her to the true death than to keep her silvered for all eternity.

Everyone in the room, but Sookie. She knew the AP was talking to her. She was warning her that to not let this go, was risking the loss of what she held most dear, the light of her life. He depended on her light, to be there for him, to guide him to warm him, to love him. To go further down this path would lead to darkness for her. She nodded at the AP, accepting her warning and left Freyda to the hands of her kind.

Nothing was worth losing the man she loved.

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"Where do we go now, lover?" he whispered to her, as he spooned her from behind, wrapping his large frame around hers in that perfect way he had. She laced her fingers through his where they rested on her middle.

"As long as I am with you, Eric, it doesn't matter to me at all." He smiled. "What do you want to do?" Snuggling her closer he kissed her forehead.

"There are some places I would like to show you, things I have seen and want to share with you." She nodded, they had all the time in the world and needed nothing beyond what they had right now.

"Are you disappointed in me, Eric?" she asked him softly.

"What do you mean, dearest?"

"That I didn't' kill her like I said I was going to?" He sighed.

"Actually, I am relieved, lover."

"Relieved? Why?"

"Others have either taken or tried to take so much from us, it's like we had the worst writer for our love story that the world has ever seen. To spend another moment dwelling on those people and those events only continues to take away from us. You taught me that, lover." She smiled and rolled over to face him.

"I only learned it because it was a necessary step to get me here to you. I am sorry I almost forgot."

"We will help each other remember now, lover." He kissed her frown away now and she held him close, counting her blessings, even the dark ones, because they had all brought her here to where she finally belonged, with Eric.

"Where to first?" she asked, smiling up at him.

"Everywhere," he whispered back before loving his wife late into the night that never ends.

~FIN~

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A/N Special thanks to Heaven 17 for that rockin' version of Don't Fear the Reaper.


End file.
